Do you like to be used?

Do you like it when someone tries to deceive you, to manipulate you, to use you? I don't like that one bit and I doubt that any of you like that either but there is someone who is doing just that to all of us all the time. Satan is doing that or at least trying his best to do it to all of us humans and we hardly ever recognize it.

Jesus told us about how bad deception would get in the end times.

Matthew 24:24 Common English Bible (CEB)
²⁴ False christs and false prophets will appear, and they will offer great signs and wonders in order to deceive, if possible, even those whom God has chosen.

I've already mentioned how I have experienced Satan's power in things like my internet going down, all my e-mail accounts disabled, my cursor jumping around to various places or disappearing all together, some writings disappearing right before sending it or posting it, and many other things. In all of this, I have learned that I can always rely on God to fix the problem. The Lord sometimes will give me an idea to get around a problem but sometimes I just have to wait and the problem just goes away.

I have also experienced Satan's deception in my mind. I believe that this work that I do here is the Lord's work through me but there have been times where I thought that maybe this is not the One True Living God's work but maybe this is Satan's work instead. I have had thoughts like maybe the Bible is made up of fictional stories and none of it is true. I have had questions about something I am about to post, if the words might be misunderstood and some how will be used by Satan.

See the post "Satan and his work"

Satan worked very hard when Yeshua Jesus entered the world as a human. He tried to get Joseph to put Mary, the mother of Jesus, away because he, Joseph, was not the father. Right away after Jesus was born, Satan tried to get baby Jesus killed. He worked in the mind of Herod the king and in the minds of the king's subjects. He tried to deceive the magi to tell Herod where to find baby Jesus. Joseph and Mary with Jesus escaped to Egypt because of a warning to Joseph in a dream. After Herod died, Joseph was told, in a dream, to returned to Israel. Evidentially Satan was now working in the mind of Archelaus, the son of Herod, because Joseph became fearful of him and Joseph was warned in a dream to depart for the regions of Galilee. They resided in the city called Nazareth, where Jesus grew up. All of this was to fulfill prophecy.

Matthew 1:18-2:23 Common English Bible (CEB)

Birth of Jesus

¹⁸ This is how the birth of Jesus Christ took place. When Mary his mother was engaged to Joseph, before they were married, she became pregnant by the Holy Spirit. ¹⁹ Joseph her husband was a righteous man. Because he didn’t want to humiliate her, he decided to call off their engagement quietly. ²⁰ As he was thinking about this, an angel from the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph son of David, don’t be afraid to take Mary as your wife, because the child she carries was conceived by the Holy Spirit. ²¹ She will give birth to a son, and you will call him Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.” ²² Now all of this took place so that what the Lord had spoken through the prophet would be fulfilled:

²³ Look! A virgin will become pregnant and give birth to a son,
        And they will call him, Emmanuel.^[a]

(Emmanuel means “God with us.”)
²⁴ When Joseph woke up, he did just as an angel from God commanded and took Mary as his wife. ²⁵ But he didn’t have sexual relations with her until she gave birth to a son. Joseph called him Jesus.

Coming of the magi

2 After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in the territory of Judea during the rule of King Herod, magi came from the east to Jerusalem. ² They asked, “Where is the newborn king of the Jews? We’ve seen his star in the east, and we’ve come to honor him.”

³ When King Herod heard this, he was troubled, and everyone in Jerusalem was troubled with him. ⁴ He gathered all the chief priests and the legal experts and asked them where the Christ was to be born. ⁵ They said, “In Bethlehem of Judea, for this is what the prophet wrote:

⁶ You, Bethlehem, land of Judah,
        by no means are you least among the rulers of Judah,
            because from you will come one who governs,
            who will shepherd my people Israel.”^[b]

⁷ Then Herod secretly called for the magi and found out from them the time when the star had first appeared. ⁸ He sent them to Bethlehem, saying, “Go and search carefully for the child. When you’ve found him, report to me so that I too may go and honor him.” ⁹ When they heard the king, they went; and look, the star they had seen in the east went ahead of them until it stood over the place where the child was. ¹⁰ When they saw the star, they were filled with joy. ¹¹ They entered the house and saw the child with Mary his mother. Falling to their knees, they honored him. Then they opened their treasure chests and presented him with gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. ¹² Because they were warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they went back to their own country by another route.

Escape to Egypt

¹³ When the magi had departed, an angel from the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, “Get up. Take the child and his mother and escape to Egypt. Stay there until I tell you, for Herod will soon search for the child in order to kill him.” ¹⁴ Joseph got up and, during the night, took the child and his mother to Egypt. ¹⁵ He stayed there until Herod died. This fulfilled what the Lord had spoken through the prophet: I have called my son out of Egypt.^[c]

Murder of the Bethlehem children

¹⁶ When Herod knew the magi had fooled him, he grew very angry. He sent soldiers to kill all the children in Bethlehem and in all the surrounding territory who were two years old and younger, according to the time that he had learned from the magi. ¹⁷ This fulfilled the word spoken through Jeremiah the prophet:

¹⁸ A voice was heard in Ramah,
    weeping and much grieving.
        Rachel weeping for her children,
            and she did not want to be comforted,
                because they were no more.^[d]

Return from Egypt

¹⁹ After King Herod died, an angel from the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt. ²⁰ “Get up,” the angel said, “and take the child and his mother and go to the land of Israel. Those who were trying to kill the child are dead.” ²¹ Joseph got up, took the child and his mother, and went to the land of Israel. ²² But when he heard that Archelaus ruled over Judea in place of his father Herod, Joseph was afraid to go there. Having been warned in a dream, he went to the area of Galilee. ²³ He settled in a city called Nazareth so that what was spoken through the prophets might be fulfilled: He will be called a Nazarene. 

The whole time Jesus was here on earth as a human, Satan tried in many different ways to keep Jesus from completing all that He was sent to do. If Satan had been successful, we would not have a savior, an unblemished, sinless human to take our place.

Jesus is fully human but He is fully God too. There had to be someone human (like us) but without sin (not like us) who was/is worthy to take our place. God can forgive but only another human can take our place in our punishment.

Today, Satan works to keep us from believing in the One True Living God, the creator of all things visible and invisible, and in Jesus Christ, the one He sent.